In the past, there have been a number of devices for supporting a motorcycle in an upright position when it was desired to keep the motorcycle stationary, such as during parking of the motorcycle. The simplest of these devices for motorcycles required physical contact with a kick stand pivotally connected to the motorcycle frame. When a motorcycle was stopped, the stand was kicked to an operative extended position to support the motorcycle on the ground. The stand was lifted into the non-extended position to allow the motorcycle to proceed. Riders either needed to support the motorcycle with their feet or get off the motorcycle to release the kick stand.
Currently, a number of more complex stands have been proposed that require mechanical interactions between components such as gears that may result in unreliability due to mechanical breakdown. Many of the stands that have been proposed are similar to kick stands since they use friction on a flat edged component that touches the ground when the motorcycle approaches a stationary position. This leads to premature wearing out of such a component and may lead to sparking that is dangerous near fuel driven motorcycles.
Su, U.S. Pat. No. 5,886,349 proposed an automated motorcycle stand that is activated by a manual switch. The stand comprises two specially designed rods vertically mounted to the bottom of a motorcycle. The rods are activated from a retracted position to an extended position by means of complex gearing that is coupled to in-built electronics. The rods have wheels that touch the ground in the extended position. As discussed above, the need for mechanical gears may lead to mechanical unreliability. The need for a manual switch to activate the stand is a limitation on the automatic nature of the stand.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need to provide improved automatic balancing stands for supporting motorcycles in an upright position and methods for providing support for a stationary motorcycle in an upright position.